January Jitters

I’m sure that this is the thousandth newsletter you’ve seen this week, all about how a new year means a new you, and how you can take the year by the reins and be a better person - lord knows I’ve seen a LOT of other life coaches do this! Hopefully, my current clients aren’t rolling their eyes at seeing this one from me, too (1:1, youth, parent, group). 

I’d like to challenge this narrative - and give you some food for thought. What if instead of new year, new you, it was new year, new growth? 

Finding time to You may have seen the newsletter from me last week where I talk about why I don’t like the “new year new you” mindset, and it reminded me of another topic that always comes up in my coaching work (1:1, parent, teen, group) at the beginning of the year: the January jitters. 

New year's resolutions, the excitement around a re-set, the opportunity for a whole new thing - it’s so exciting! But what we don’t always talk about is how stressful it is. 

The pressure to change everything, get your life together, become the best version of you, start all these new routines… It’s a lot! And to what end? What good does it do us to frantically engage with these narratives every year?

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be pushing for self-improvement - of course we should! But do we really need to be putting ourselves through this intensity every single year? And what would happen if instead of putting all this pressure on ourselves to change everything… we recognized our success and what things we should keep the same. 

There is so much about ourselves to appreciate - and much of my coaching work focuses on this idea that you ARE already a wonderful version of yourself. It’s not about changing everything; it’s about recognizing what parts of you are present but not shining, and making sure they get illuminated in the way that they should. 

You don’t need to reset. You don’t need to change everything. You need to recognize what you have and what needs to be allowed to shine through a little more. 

Slow down and recognize what you’re doing right. Appreciate the successes you’ve had. And if you want to illuminate these pieces of yourself more, schedule a conversation with me. I promise you’re worth it. 

Much Love, 

Unnatti Jain